Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-24
DO LIKEWISE.
DR.. Birdsa1I's Sermon at st. Psufs
Church.

DR.. BirdsasI,s Sermon at st. Paufs
Church.
Rev. DIR. Birdsall took for his text
yesterday morning at st Paul's Epis-
copal Church the 10th chapter and
9th verse of Luke: "Go and do like
wise" In the course Of his remarks
he said:
l have been asked to preach this
morning upon the subject of the hos
pital. gladly comply with the re-
quest because that rightly understood
it is the most practical way OF preach
ing Christ.
My text, You see, is from the para
BILE of the Good Smaritain. 1t was
Jesus answer to the question of the
lawyer, "who is my neighbour"
He had himself admitted that the
law OF Moses required him to love his
neighbor as himself, but he wished to
secure himself by drawing the line
somewhere.
Jesus, by the parable, shows him
first a priest and then Levite looking
at a fellow Jew by the roadside naked,
half dead with bleeding wounds and
then hurrying Oh to their homes. A
hated samaritan at once dismounts,
binds up the wounds, lifts the poor
man upon his beast and himself walks,
carries him to an inn and takes
care of him, and on the
morrow he paid the price, two days
labor for future care, and promised
whatever more was needed. The
lawyer could not but admire such
conduct, and pronounced sentence
that the Samaritan had acted the
neighbours part to one who had fallen
into the hands Of the robbers. And
see what this means Love is not
mere feeling; love is brave; love is
sell sacrificing and thoughtful and
considerate and helpful wherever help
is needed And all this between man
and man, where the widest possible
difference separates them. In this
day we can hardly understand how
the Jews and Samaritans, as such,
hated each other. They were of diff
ferent race. The Jews claimed the
blood of Abraham and these Samari-
tans were of heathen origin. The
Jews were sure they possessed exclns-
i've privileges and the only true tenn
pie of the true God at Jerusalem,
while the Samaritans had a tenn
pie of their own on Mount Gersim
which they claimed was just as
good, and after the temple was de-
stroyed they regarded the mountain
as peculiarly sacred. So the woman
of Samaria said to Jesus: "Our fathers
worshipped in this mountain, and ye
say that in Jerusalem is the place
where men ought to worship"
There was an old tradition of aliena-
ton and hatred handed down for gem
erations. The Samaritans once re-
fused Jesus and his disciples hospi-
tality because they were on their way
to Jerusalem, and the disciples wanted
to bring down fire from Heaven to
punish them.
The woman wondered that Jesus, a
Jew, asked water of her, Il woman of
Samaria, because the Jews have no
dealings with the Samaritans. And
when the Jew wanted to say the bit
terest thing he could possible think of
Jesus, he asked: "Say we not well
that Thou art q Samaritan and hast a
devil"
Our Lord, too, you remember, pro-
nounced the Jews theoretically in his
religion right and the Samaritans
wrong. aye worship ye know not
what, we know that we worship for
salvation of the Jews" He pro-
nounces them schismatic and hereto.
He gives no countenance to their
pervertisms of the Jewish, but he Sc
lects Samaritan as an example and
pattern for a Jew for all men-just as
He had given unstinted praise and
commentator to the one Samaritan
among the nine Jewish lepers who re-
turned and gave thanks for His heal
ing; just as He rebuked His own
disciples, who wanted to call down
fire from the Heavens upon the Sa-
maritans and told them: aye know
not what spirit ye are Of" So here,
while instructing Jew He finds
Samaritan who exhibited in conduct
the real meaning and purport of the
command: "Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself."
This meaning lay in the words.
1t was from the beginning in
the mind and purpose Of God.
But it first comes out and is mani
tested to the world when God is
revealed in Christ Jesus. He came
not as the representative of any class
or nation, but as the son of man. The
incarnation at once recognized aud
demonstrated a certain dignity and
worth in human natuae that made an
incarnation possible, and also gave an
added dignity and worth to it, by
binding it to the eternal nature of the
Infinite.
The life of Jesus Christ as he walked
this earth was the spontaneous out
come and consequence OF these facts.
We know, of course, the chief aim
and purpose Of His mission was spirit
ual and dealt with the soul. But the
soul was never regarded by him as
separate from and apart from the
body.
II am a man and nothing human is
foreign to me-" the empty boast of
the Roman who took delight in
the gladitorial shows, was first
made reality in Christ